Is KFI not at full power, or am I just hallucinating / smelling cannabis nearby?

[pianoplayer88key]

I've noticed the last couple days that KFI has been considerably weaker than normal at my house in El Cajon the last couple days. Reading the signal strength on my Tecsun PL-606, it seems KFI's a good 15-20 dB weaker than KNX, in spite of the latter being 12 miles more distant. KNX does have the advantage of a partial saltwater path at my location, but it shouldn't make it THAT much stronger than KFI. From what I remember there's usually at most about a 3-6 dB difference, with KNX edging ahead of KFI.
Is it just my imagination, or is KFI maybe operating with a lower power backup transmitter and/or on their shorter aux stick?
(Or is someone really growing that maybe, and any equipment associated with that possibly causing the signal to seem weaker? I do sometimes smell something kinda interesting when biking up the street, but I'll admit I really have no clue what the stuff smells like.)

 

[calguy]

Could be at low power, but wouldn't know why. The FM's on Mt. Wilson will lower power due to weather and ice up there, but KFI is on the basin floor so it could just be an engineering decision for whatever reason. The CC engineers rarely work at night or on weekends, so who knows. They have a back-up stick that was upgraded from 10 to 25 KW and used that for like 3 years or so when their main antenna was down, they could be using it.

 

[sdwulfdawg]

I've noticed the last couple days that KFI has been considerably weaker than normal at my house in El Cajon the last couple days. Reading the signal strength on my Tecsun PL-606, it seems KFI's a good 15-20 dB weaker than KNX, in spite of the latter being 12 miles more distant. KNX does have the advantage of a partial saltwater path at my location, but it shouldn't make it THAT much stronger than KFI. From what I remember there's usually at most about a 3-6 dB difference, with KNX edging ahead of KFI.
Is it just my imagination, or is KFI maybe operating with a lower power backup transmitter and/or on their shorter aux stick?
(Or is someone really growing that maybe, and any equipment associated with that possibly causing the signal to seem weaker? I do sometimes smell something kinda interesting when biking up the street, but I'll admit I really have no clue what the stuff smells like.)

I was just logging in to see what was up and am experiencing the same thing....and I'm also in El Cajon near Rancho San Diego. I listen to KFI in the car (and at home) and have been experiencing lousy reception there as well over the past several days.

 

[pianoplayer88key]

I was just logging in to see what was up and am experiencing the same thing....and I'm also in El Cajon near Rancho San Diego.  I listen to KFI in the car (and at home) and have been experiencing lousy reception there as well over the past several days.

Interesting - that's kind-of almost where I am - basically between El Cajon and Rancho San Diego.  (In fact on the other side of a nearby street to the south is a La Mesa zip code.)  I'm about a mile north (and slightly west) of Cuyamaca College.
Yeah I wonder what's up with them.  KNX and KBRT by comparison both sound like blowtorches, and even KLAC isn't that far behind KFI on its signal it seems.

 

[sdwulfdawg]

I was just logging in to see what was up and am experiencing the same thing....and I'm also in El Cajon near Rancho San Diego. I listen to KFI in the car (and at home) and have been experiencing lousy reception there as well over the past several days.

Interesting - that's kind-of almost where I am - basically between El Cajon and Rancho San Diego. (In fact on the other side of a nearby street to the south is a La Mesa zip code.) I'm about a mile north (and slightly west) of Cuyamaca College.
Yeah I wonder what's up with them. KNX and KBRT by comparison both sound like blowtorches, and even KLAC isn't that far behind KFI on its signal it seems.

I actually sent an e-mail to KFI this afternoon asking about the low signal...we'll see what response (if any) I get.

 

[SimiRadioListener26]

Have always had good reception for KFI here in Simi Valley, until the past week...

 

[SDRadio]

My first clue they are using the aux antenna: No HDRadio reception, even in Sandy Eggo (near the same location, too folks!). That explains why I could not received 640 in Kansas last week. As of this morning, still week (in reception). The smaller yet efficient antenna is 25,000 watts and has no HDRadio.

 

[FresnoDave]

Interesting....

I just moved to Rancho Cucamonga a week ago and on my clock radio, KFI comes in strong, like a local station, and KNX is weak and static filled. I can't even get a clear signal on AM 590 (KTIE) which is less than 20 miles away at the 10/215 interchange. In fact at night, I get a stronger signal from KCBS 740 San Francisco than I get from KNX Los Angeles.

 

[ercjncpr]

Reminds me of when I went on a tour of KFI in 1977 with fellow students of my Saddleback College Radio-TV class and I asked then-GM Biggie Nevins about 50,000 watts and whether he included the area outside LA (particularly at night) in any programming decisions. He laughed and said "I don't care about 50,000 watts! I am programming to Los Angeles and that is all I care about."

 

[Mediafrog+]

Reminds me of when I went on a tour of KFI in 1977 with fellow students of my Saddleback College Radio-TV class and I asked then-GM Biggie Nevins about 50,000 watts and whether he included the area outside LA (particularly at night) in any programming decisions. He laughed and said "I don't care about 50,000 watts! I am programming to Los Angeles and that is all I care about."

Interesting, because in the late 70's and early 80's I recall the on-air personalities on KFI would often refer to listeners outside of SoCal. At the top of the hour (at night) they would say something like "It's ten o'clock across Western North America" or "It's 11pm up and down the Pacific Coast." The jocks would sometimes acknowledge call-ins from distant listeners as well.

Yes, irrelevant from a sales standpoint, but the on-air folks had a bigger perspective, I guess.

 

[davideduardo]

My first clue they are using the aux antenna: No HDRadio reception, even in Sandy Eggo (near the same location, too folks!). That explains why I could not received 640 in Kansas last week. As of this morning, still week (in reception). The smaller yet efficient antenna is 25,000 watts and has no HDRadio.

On a drive I make at least 100 times a year, the portion of the 10 from the IE to Indio, the signal was very, very much deteriorated.

At 50 kw on the half-wave (electrical) tower, there is no or minimal skywave / groundwave cancellation in the Redlands to Yucaipa area. Tonight, severe cancellation and interference from the Hdgo. del Parral station. Even worse than most of the time when the inefficient short stick was used at other times in the past.

And on the 10 from the NW end of the Coachella Valley to Indio, where a strong signal is usual, with HD lock almost all the way, there was lots of noise and fading and what was generally an unlistenable signal. No HD.

 

[pianoplayer88key]

Hey David I was just curious ...  I expect KFI, when operating normally, would cover the entire market (L.A., O.C. and I.E.) with what you say would be a good analog signal day and night ... but which other socal AM stations (that are NOT 50kW fulltime and/OR are directional) do you think cover at least two of the L.A., O.C. and I.E. markets, day OR night?  (Or are there any 50kW stations whose deepest null, if directional, is no more than about 6 to 10 dB or so relative to non-directional operation, that do NOT cover the entire market?)
Also I remember you've said that generally minimum listening in L.A. or comparable inner metro areas is to a 10 mV/m signal.  What would you say would be a comparable signal in a rural location (like northeast Nevada, southwest Arizona, etc) when away from electrical interference and using a radio with at least an 8" ferrite bar or a 12" air-core loop?  Would something like 100 µV/m or even 30 µV/m be sufficient in areas like that?  Or is the noise in L.A. not 40-50dB higher than way out in the sticks?

Interesting thing, though, I was checking tonight while in Miramar (passing by on my way up the dial to KXNT for Dave Ramsey (it's MUCH better here at night than KFWB is at my house south of El Cajon in the daytime, although my GE SR3 can pull it in with a listenable signal) cause KMIK's signal was getting clobbered by KBLA and KDIS was very weak leaving me without the music, also bypassing KFRN cause I had already heard the Bible reading earlier in the day), and while they were still 10-15 dB weaker than KNX (as indicated on my PL-606), I distinctly heard what sounded to me like IBOC sidebands on either side.

 

[Ryan Williams]

Riverside-San Bernadino is a separate market (it is not embedded).

In Los Angeles and Orange counties, I think it is widely agreed that the three best full-time AM signals are 640, 1070 and 570 in that order. After that, probably 1020 and 710. Although every signal other than KFI has deficiencies. Depending on where you are, your millage may vary.

 

[SuperRadioFan]

KBRT 740 AM comes in pretty good in all of Orange County and North San Diego County, as well as in much of LA County.

EDIT: [just noticed Ryan said 'full-time]

Note to pianoplayer, why'd you change your SN from 'tfcchickenwings'???

 

[davideduardo]

Riverside-San Bernadino is a separate market (it is not embedded).

In Los Angeles and Orange counties, I think it is widely agreed that the three best full-time AM signals are 640, 1070 and 570 in that order. After that, probably 1020 and 710. Although every signal other than KFI has deficiencies. Depending on where you are, your millage may vary.

1020 misses pretty much all of OC at night, and has no coverage of the high desert or Santa Clarita areas at night, either.

I'd rank them as KFI, KNX, KLAC, 710, 790, 1110, 1020, 980, 1150, 930.

 

[pianoplayer88key]

Riverside-San Bernadino is a separate market (it is not embedded).

In Los Angeles and Orange counties, I think it is widely agreed that the three best full-time AM signals are 640, 1070 and 570 in that order. After that, probably 1020 and 710. Although every signal other than KFI has deficiencies. Depending on where you are, your millage may vary.

1020 misses pretty much all of OC at night, and has no coverage of the high desert or Santa Clarita areas at night, either.

I'd rank them as KFI, KNX, KLAC, 710, 790, 1110, 1020, 980, 1150, 930.

1020 misses OC at night?? If so, how is it I'm hearing KTNQ so well just south of El Cajon about 171.4 km away? I'm about 2.25x past the Orange / San Diego county line (76.4 km from KTNQ) along the path. I realize the signal at my location isn't quite perfectly clear, but I would think that being that much closer to KTNQ's transmitter, and farther away from 1030 XESDD (the source of the faint adjacent-channel interference audible in my clip) should make up the difference, shouldn't it? Also I checked along the various azimuths (specified in FCC pattern data - every 5 degrees) through OC, and the azimuth toward me is within a dB of the weakest, and most of them (especially toward the west) are MUCH stronger. (Even the ones toward the east are a couple dB stronger as well.)
That clip was recorded shortly after sunset - the TOH ID featured in the clip was at 5 pm. I was in my back yard (about 100 feet from the house) using a GE Superradio III and Select-A-Tenna. Any reason I shouldn't expect the signal in OC to be HUGELY improved relative to what I recorded?

Also, as for the other stations you listed, I can hear pretty much all of them at night here, and almost all of them during the day. My rankings in descending order for daytime quality would go KNX, (did you intentionally leave KBRT out?), KFI, KLAC, 710, 790, 930, 980, 1110, 1020 (last two switched if using a radio with poor selectivity - the local on 1130 is MUCH stronger than the semi-local on 1030) and 1150 (this one requires a good antenna & good selectivity due to strong locals on 1130 (10kW @ 6 mi) and 1170 (50kW @ 9 mi) almost in the same direction.
At night, most of those listed can often be heard fairly well (tonight's an exception for a few, though). Right now on my PL-606 using only its internal ferrite bar I'm getting usable (if not totally clean) signals from 570, 610 (even through local 600's IBOC), 640, 670, 710, 830, 930, 1020, 1070 and 1540. Also there but not as good are 790, 870, 980, 1110, 1150, 1330, 1510, 1580 and 1650. MIA or AWOL are 1190, 1260, 1280, 1300, 1390, 1430, 1460, 1480 (all have been heard here on occasion), and I'm not sure if I missed any others.

 

[davideduardo]

1020 misses pretty much all of OC at night, and has no coverage of the high desert or Santa Clarita areas at night, either.


1020 misses OC at night?? If so, how is it I'm hearing KTNQ so well just south of El Cajon about 171.4 km away?

At night, KTNQ is licensed to receive interference from Roswell at roughly the 9 mv/m contour. Some nights, as is the case with skywave, are better and some worse. But as far as having a useful totally interference free signal, 1020 is absolutely useless anywhere farther south than Santa Ana (marginal) or Garden Grove.

As I was the PD for the station for quite a few years, and then supervised programming for the station for more years, I am well aware of the practical coverage limits for that station. For the average non-DXer listener, the station was unlistenable there.

 

[DJBigOne]

I've noticed the last couple days that KFI has been considerably weaker <<

I doubt they're at lower power. I listened to Tim Conway Jr. last night on my way home (between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe).